Pope calls Christians the most persecuted

Edit: Finally, after 10+ edits I figured out how to get the link to work

VATICAN CITY – PopeBenedictXVI said Thursday that Christians suffer more religious persecution than any other group, denouncing lack of freedom of worship as an "intolerable" threat to world security.

Here, let me rephrase that for the pope: "Christianity is garnering the proper criticism it deserves and is losing even more of its government sponsorship, further relegating religion to the sphere of individuals only, thereby lessening whatever support it has for its atrocious doctrine and kiddy fiddling ways."

Benedict also criticized what he called "more sophisticated forms of hostility to religion, which, in Western countries, occasionally find expression in a denial of history and the rejection of religious symbols which reflect the identity and the culture of the majority of its citizens."

Benedict has been continuing a campaign launched by his predecessor, the lateJohnPaulII, to reinvigorate Europe's "Christian roots."

The Vatican has criticized initiatives in some Western countries to ban crucifixes from public places, ranging from classrooms to courtrooms, including in predominantly Catholic Italy.

When religion is relegated to the private sphere of life, then it musn't be persecuted. While it's part of the public sphere it's a fair target for criticism, satire and protest. So, for the time being, bring on the lions. That's also part of European tradition.

He wrote that he was especially thinking of Iraq ",which continues to be a theater of violence and strife" as it aims for stability and reconciliation.

Gee, do you think that might have anything to do with the way that Christians were proselytizing during the Iraq war and certain asshole heads of state called the war a crusade? Your religion brought this on itself. The specific people there might not have done anything, but the religious edifice as a whole has to reign in its more aggressive members, or the whole suffers, by association.